Pune: In order to highlight the importance of Yoga as an academic subject in line with other subjects for physiotherapists ,University Grants Commission has directed all the universities and other government affiliated colleges to include teaching and training of Yoga in their Bachelor’s and Master’s programs for Physiotherapy. The said direction came to effect this Thursday.

In this regard, the ministry of Human Resource Development had written a letter to University Grants Commission (UGC) which was enclosed with the UGC circular. The circular clearly stated said that ”Ministry of AYUSH has requested that the UGC may include yoga syllabus in BPT and MPT for forthcoming academic session. The honorable prime minister has also desired that the possibility of giving suitable preference in admission to graduate courses in physiotherapy to those candidates having requisite expertise in yoga may be explored”, reports TOI

As per the letter from the Ayush ministry to ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD), the former had put forward the decision of including Yoga in the curriculum for both Bachelor’s level and Masters level. The newly designed syllabus would include both practical and theoretical study of Yoga with reference to ancient Indian philosophy, mythology and yogic texts, the letter highlighted

For the same, a committee on Yoga Education in Universities headed by DR H R Nagendra, chancellor, S-Vyasa University, Bengaluru are reported to have examined the issue and finally recommend the yoga syllabus for Bachelor and Master’s in Physiotherapy (BPT and MPT).